


honesty is like a kiss on the lips

by ElectricEuphonium



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Dwarves, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Getting Together, Gnomes, Humans, Hurt/Comfort, Interspecies Romance, M/M, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Post-Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, Romance, nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-24 20:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17107781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectricEuphonium/pseuds/ElectricEuphonium
Summary: Takes place post-Story and Song. Davenport and Merle are dating and have taken in John after the battle. Davenport gives John and Merle his permission to date, but what happens when the gnome and the human find themselves getting closer as well?





	honesty is like a kiss on the lips

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Place To Stay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11686515) by [alexthenerdlord](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexthenerdlord/pseuds/alexthenerdlord). 



> waow

John had been staying with them for a couple of weeks when Davenport decided to ask him about it.

“Merle?”

The dwarf looked up from the book he was reading and smiled. “Yeah, Dav?”

He kept his eyes open and free of judgement. “Did you and John...have something? Together?”

From the way Merle blanched the answer was pretty easy to guess. He ran his wooden hand through his beard, anxiety causing his magic to go on overdrive and sprout flowers along his arm and in his facial hair. Merle took a moment and looked in the direction of the guest room (currently John’s room) and let out a soft “Shit.”

“Merle--”

“I'm so sorry, Dav, I...I did, and I didn't mean for it to happen, but after a couple Parleys I started to--”

“-Merle,” Davenport tried to interject.

“really get feelings for him, but I...I love you Dav, you know I do, I--”

“ _It’s okay!_ ” Davenport was finally able to say, wrapping his arms around Merle. “You're okay. We’re okay, it's all okay.”

Merle cringed. “It's not, it--”

Davenport grabbed Merle by the shoulders and pulled back to look at him. “Merle. It’s okay. I don't care. I’m...honestly, I’m fine with it. And if you want to maybe...try having something like that with him again, I’m fine with it.”

Merle became flushed and his eyes lit up. “You...really?”

Davenport nodded gently. The glow from the window behind him made him look like an angel as Merle ran his hand along his cheek. “I...you don’t have to do that, Dav, if you don’t want me stepping out—“

“You’re not stepping out on me, Merle. I just gave you explicit permission,” Davenport still had a smirk on his face.

Merle looked at the man he had come to love and wondered how he could ever be so lucky to get someone who understood him as well as Davenport did. “Alright. Alright...I...I’ll see if he’s still interested.”

Merle leaned forward and kissed Davenport, who kissed him back and smiled. “Love you, Dav.”

“Love you too, ya lug.” Davenport squeezed his shoulder and sat down to read at his chair as Merle went into the hall and knocked on the door to John’s room.

“John, can I come in?”

~

“John, can I come in?”

Davenport stood outside the door to the guest room with his hands clasped in front of him. The wooden door gave a slight creak as John promptly opened the door. He smiled a bit nervously as he saw Davenport, but stood aside and motioned inside.

“Thanks,” Davenport said, and John closed the door. The smaller man took a seat at the reading chair in the corner of the room. John slowly shifted over to the end of the bed in the guest room and sat down on it.

“Did you need to talk with me about something?”

“Kinda?” Davenport grinned. “I just wanted to check in. See how you’re adjusting.”

“Merle did the same thing,” John admitted with a smile, but then looked away. A grimace crossed his face. “It is...just as confusing. I don’t understand. I chased you across countless planes, destroyed so many lives. It’s ridiculous, the way you and him treat me with any sort of compassion. That he would actually want a relationship with me, and that you would approve of him being with me as well as you...who’s to say that I won’t just snap his neck in an intimate moment, won’t crush his heart like I crushed millions of lives beneath my heel—“

John let out a hacking cough and Davenport jumped to his feet, walking over and putting a hand on the highest point he could reach, which happened to be John’s knee. “Shit, are you okay?”

John groaned. “See, like that. Why are you guys so goddamn nice to me?!”

Davenport thought for a moment. “I can’t speak for my husband, but I’m a gnome of the opinion that everyone deserves a second chance. It might take a while for me sometimes, but everyone deserves a second chance at least. Yes, you did some awful things, but...that wasn’t really you entirely, was it?”

“I...no, I was not in control for most of it. But still…”

“You did some really bad things, but that doesn’t make you beyond redemption. You just have to be a better person than you were. And as for checking up on you, that cough sounds bad.”

John waved his hand side to side. “No, no. This is my body expunging the Hunger. Sometimes I cough up a weird black liquid with shimmering stars. I’m getting the last bits out.”

“That’s...that’s excellent! Also, incredibly gross. Would you mind letting me study that?”

John smiled sardonically. He forgot that Davenport was in a high position at the IPRE before he started chasing them.

“Sure thing, Davenport.”

Davenport laughed and shook his head. “Just call me Dav.”

“Sure thing...Dav.”

~

“Sure thing, Dav.”

“Excellent!” Davenport bounded from his seat, throwing the book he was holding onto it. He almost slid on the floor as he landed, but recovered and bustled quickly to his lab. Davenport and Merle had apparently agreed to install it in the house so Davenport could do experiments, mostly related to illusion magic.

John looked bemusedly after Davenport. “Were you waiting for me to come into the living room so you could ask me that?”

“I won’t answer that in a way that confirms or denies anything.” The gnome opened the door and disappeared from the hall into the lab. John followed behind and tried not to think what his instinctual thought was—Cute.

When he reached the lab Davenport was already standing on a table in the center of the room, arranging test tubes and typing into a laptop on a stand. “What is all this?”

“Science,” Davenport said, as if that explained anything. Soon John had hacked up the strange liquid into a test tube and Davenport was studying samples of it under a microscope. He spent a moment watching him work when he realized that there was a clarity in his chest that he hadn’t felt...ever.

“Dav.”

“Yes?” The gnome questioned, not looking up from his studying. He used a dropper on the sample he was observing under a test tube.

“It...it’s gone,” he said, disbelief and relief clear in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Davenport looked up from his work and pulled his goggles from his eyes, a questioning glance in them.

“It’s gone. The Hunger is gone, I can feel it. There’s no more.” John slowly ran a hand over his own chest, as if at any moment the amazing feeling he was experiencing could be ripped away. He looked up at Davenport, eyes watery. “It’s gone.”

The smaller man’s grin split his face, and he immediately abandoned his work to run towards John, wrapping his arms around him as he reached him. The human froze, seemingly unaware of what to do when dealing with this affection, but he smiled and returned it, stray tears escaping his eyes. “It’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone,” he said, over and over, until no more tears fell from his eyes and he could finally calm down.

“Thank you, Dav. For being here.”

The gnome smiled. He would probably have to think more about the pounding in his chest, but that was for later.

“Anytime.”

~

“Anytime,” Merle said after Davenport thanked him for handing him the remote. He lifted the remote and started flipping through the channels when his eyes went wide.

“Oh, fuck.”

Merle looked to the side with surprise. “What is it?”

Davenport continued staring straight ahead, mouth open. “I...I think I like John.”

The gnome looked to where his husband sat next to him on the couch, and found him gazing at him with warmth and a gentle smile. “Well? What are you gonna do about it?”

“Wait, would you want me to do something about it?” Davenport lifted an eyebrow as some tabloid show played in the background.

“Only if you want to, only if you’re comfortable, Dav. You’ve been really accommodating for me. Only right I do the same for you.”

Davenport looked a little uneasy. “I wouldn’t want to...come between you guys…”

“I’m married to you, ya dolt.”

Davenport laughed in surprise. “I suppose you’re right.”

“If you want, it could be the three of us. We can see if we could make it work,” Merle gently said with a lovely blush on his face and a smile.

He thought for a moment, about John. About the man whose confidence in an idea had gotten so big it literally became manifest, who now is one singular person again and feels so lonely, and so unworthy of love because of the things that he caused. Who smiles like he’s trying to get used to it, like he’s trying not to leave cracks in his face because it’s so unused to making anything but frowns. He thought about the man who he saw making Merle so happy. He thought about the man who cried as he held him once he finally felt free, and like his own person. He imagines for a moment, the three of them. Holding hands as they walk down the street. Coming home to them both after a long day. Being in-between them and feeling safe and contented and loved.

Davenport blushed. “I...I think I’d like to try.”

Merle smiled at the possibilities that stretched before him. Davenport noticed and added, “But! Let me...let me tell him myself. And when I feel ready.”

“Of course, Cap’n,” he reassured with a wink. “It’ll be our secret.”

~

“It’ll be our secret~” Merle teased as John stroked his hands through the dwarf’s hair.

“Thank you, Merle, thank you,” he said, and then kissed Merle gently. Merle hummed, pleased, then smiled.

“When are you going to tell him, buddy?”

John exhaled deeply and looked at the floor. He had seen this look on him before, the kind of cloud covering his expression that he always got whenever he thought about the things that had happened when he was a part of the Hunger. Merle reached for him, and he reluctantly let the dwarf hug him. “It’s okay. You don’t have to yet. Just think about telling him, alright Johnny?”

He smiled despite himself. “You know I hate it when you call me that.”

“Yes, but I also know it makes you smile,” Merle said, and kissed him on the cheek.

The front door opened, and Davenport entered, a slight sway to his step and his hair slightly disheveled. “Oh, hey you two. What are you doing up?”

~

“What are you doing up?”

John jumped and looked up from the tea he was nursing. A single cricket bleated in the distance as he smiled and looked back to the night sky and dark water of the ocean. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.” The gnome grinned apologetically as he padded on bare feet over to the table where John sat. Pulling himself up, Davenport took his place on the wooden bench next to their table on the deck. It was a gorgeous night; the moon was full and shining, reflecting off of the dark ocean, and the stars were blinking a great burning white. John had a half-empty cup of tea that Davenport judged to be chamomile from the smell. It was cold enough outside that there was still steam rising from it. The gnome wiggled his toes to get some blood flowing back through them. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Oh. I was just getting some thinking done.” John looked at Davenport out of the corner of his eye, then returned his gaze to the brilliant night sky. “I find I have to do that much less when I am graced by you and Merle’s company, but I still do it regardless.”

Davenport wrapped an arm around John and leaned closer to him. “It’s alright. Everyone gets caught up in their own head sometimes. Thinking can be good, too, though.”

John smiled sardonically and let out a huff of breath that caught the moonlight. “Believe me, it hasn’t been entirely negative thinking, just...complicated. Mainly about...feelings.”

“Oh!” Davenport commented, trying desperately not to betray the truth threatening to jump out from behind his teeth: He wanted to hear basically anything and everything John had to say on that because he hoped it might involve him. He twirled his mustache in an attempt to seem more nonchalant. “What kind of feelings?”

“Mainly the kind that have been driving me crazy and making me feel alive. So, romantic feelings,” he said with an only slightly melodramatic exhale.

“I already assumed you had those for my husband, considering you’ve been dating for a couple weeks. Have I read the situation wrong?”

They laughed, and John gave Davenport a slight shove.

“No, no, you’ve got that part right.” His smile stayed on his face, and Davenport wanted to trace it with his fingers. “I...I’ve been…”

The human looked out at the water as if it would give him some kind of way to maneuver around this topic, but came up short. He scratched his chin and felt the slight stubble he had grown in the past few days scratch against his soft hands. It was so strange to have a human body again. Strange to feel so deeply and so often. He felt Davenport place his arm around his shoulder, then shuffle closer to have their sides flush together. He looked to his left to find Davenport had his gaze firmly locked on him. Davenport’s brown eyes wavered hesitantly from John’s own, to his lips, and back. John wet his lips, swallowed, prayed to any of the gods that inhabit this plane that he wasn’t reading the signals wrong, and leaned down to kiss him with a soft brush of lips.

Immediately Davenport let out a large exhale through his nose and gripped John’s collar, pulling him closer and pushing his lips firmer against his. John let a soft groan escape from behind his mouth. The taller man wrapped his arms around Davenport’s back and pulled him tightly into his lap. They broke apart, eyes bright and staring at the other.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” Davenport admitted. His breath left in warm exhales that could be seen in the cold.

“Me too,” John murmured, tracing a thumb across the gnome’s cheek. “Really, I’ve wanted to before I even started to have feelings for you. So handsome.”

Davenport giggled and kissed him briefly. “Feelings for me, huh?”

John’s eyes went wide at his teasing. “Oh. Umm. I didn’t mean...I already have Merle, I don’t need to be...greedy, or something like that.”

“We want to include you,” he said, looking directly into the human’s face with conviction. “We would love to try...all three of us. If you want to.”

He thought for a moment, about Merle and Davenport. About the dwarf who was maybe the most important person in his life. How he helped him retain a material form after they had defeated the Hunger. Who had been the first person to make him consider that maybe what the Hunger was doing wasn’t right. Who made him feel safe and warm, and who he loved, unequivocally. He thought about Davenport, about the gnome who had been a constant and unjudging presence as he adjusted back to a normal life. Who filled the kitchen with his laughter whenever Merle told a lame joke. Who was there to hold him when he finally expelled the last of the Hunger.

“I want to try,” he said, and kissed Davenport again.

~

 

 

 

“Having trouble sleeping, John?” Davenport wrapped his arms around the human as Merle did the same.

“Not anymore,” he said contentedly, and closed his eyes.


End file.
